a look at the companies leading the way in lean manufacturing that includes GM, Kellogg and Lockheed Martin

That would be Grrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

Toast just keeps on giving when it comes to lean training!

"The foundation for transparent thinking is the elimination of a blaming and shaming culture"

Interesting idea -- A Kaizen newspaper

Plus a couple of simplified videos to help anyone with the concepts of value stream mapping and spaghetti diagramming (location)

Lean business operation philosophy not only applies to manufacturing, we've also seen its positive impact on service. Now here's somebody proposing to apply it to municipal operations. And he's right!

Kanban is creating visual cues within a process/system that are intended to trigger action (e.g., an empty bin or . . . well, a full bin). This article quickly provides two things: 1) Sound advice when attempting to develop a Kanban system: "if you having a difficult time getting started just remove the first and last step [when reviewing your value stream process]. Compress your value stream so that you have better definition and you know exactly what your handoff will be and who you will be giving it to." 2) Eepybird's creative sticky note video

Plus my parenthetical annotation of the 3 hazards in this post . . . #1 - Lack Of A Repeating System (I see a hazard that I suspect is more frequently encountered than the lack of a repeating system: failing to identify the potential for a repeating system where it currently doesn't exist) #2 - Following Human Inputs (i.e., identifying the scope of your VSM. This is can prove difficult in complex development systems) #3 - VS Mapping Without Observation (Can one even think to perform value stream mapping without observation? What would be the point?)

Steps to consider when applying "Lean" to services. 1) Define Improvement Targets on the Basis of Voice of the Customer 2) Make the Relevant Processes Visible 3) Determine the Time Traps 4) Analyse the Time Traps to Determine their Causes 5) Apply Appropriate Tools to Improve the Process